


Ginger Gets a Visitor

by TibbieFowler



Category: Biggles Series - W. E. Johns
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TibbieFowler/pseuds/TibbieFowler
Summary: A friend comes calling in the wee hours
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	Ginger Gets a Visitor

Ginger woke suddenly. He was aware that a noise had awakened him, and he lay in his bed waiting for a repetition of the noise. He did not wait long.

Tap. A pause. Tap.

He threw off the bedclothes and followed the noise to the window. He drew back the curtain. A streetlight down the road showed a young woman standing on the pavement outside, a handful of pebbles in her hand. He blinked. She waved up at him.

Curious now, Ginger opened the window. “Yes? Who’s there?”

“Ginger, it’s me. Lainey.” 

Ginger stared. The girl from the stationery shop! Had she missed her bus or something? He threw a quick glance at the clock on his nightstand. It was just after one in the morning.

“Lainey? What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

“My bus broke down. I got home late, and my uncle and I quarreled. He accused me of some pretty horrible things and wouldn’t let me in.”

Ginger was properly horrified. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll figure it out in the morning. Can I stay with you tonight?”

Ginger bit his lip. “Well… I … “

“Please. I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Ginger hesitated for a brief moment before saying “All right. But listen – you have to be quiet. I’ve got… flatmates. They’re asleep.”

“I will. Come down and let me in.”

“Just a moment.”

A few minutes later, Ginger was showing her into the lounge. His mind was whirring. He knew what Biggles would want him to do. “Here,” he said, showing her his room. “You stay here and I’ll sleep in the lounge. Let me just grab a blanket and some cushions…”

He didn’t get further because she pressed her lips to his. “Oh,” he said simply when at last she pulled away from him.

“Don’t go.”

“I… I really should.”

She stepped back from him and pulled her dress over her head.

“I can be quiet,” she whispered. “Can you?”

**

The next morning, Biggles entered the lounge and sat down at the breakfast table in his usual chair. He snagged a piece of toast off the rack and picked up the morning paper, which Mrs. Symes had thoughtfully folded next to his plate, just as he liked it.

He heard someone come down the hall but didn’t look up at first. Then he smelled a faintly feminine perfume and dropped the paper in a hurry. A young woman, clad in a man’s vest and quite obviously nothing else, smiled at him. “Hello,” she said brightly. “is there any tea left in that pot?”

Biggles merely stared. Slowly, he became aware that his mouth was hanging open and he gestured at the chair across from him. The shirt she was wearing barely covered her necessary bits! With a strength of will he didn’t know he possessed, Biggles forced his eyes back to her face as she took the proffered chair.

Not only was he surprised at her mere presence, but he was shocked that Algy had picked up someone so young – and chirpy. Algy was also usually the soul of discretion where women were involved. Also, he was vaguely aware that he had seen this young lady before, but he couldn’t place her. Good grief! I hope she isn’t the daughter of someone we know. 

They sat opposite each other in silence for a few moments, while she happily gobbled down his toast and sipped her tea, while he tried not to stare.

“I’m sorry,” said Biggles slowly at last. “But who are you?”

“Oh! Sorry. I thought you might have recognized me. My name’s Elaine – Lainey for short – from the stationery shop downstairs.”

“Of course!” exclaimed Biggles in relief. “I knew I’d seen you before… I just didn’t recognize you… without your clothes.” 

She looked down, as if suddenly realizing she wasn’t wearing much of anything. “Oh. Sorry. Ginger was still asleep and I couldn’t find where he …”

“I’m sorry. Did you just say ... Ginger?”

At that moment, Algy entered the room. “Oh, hello. You didn’t tell me we had company. And such lovely company it is.” He offered his hand to Lainey and winked outrageously at Biggles.

Biggles spluttered in his teacup. “Algy. Meet Lainey. Ginger’s friend.”

Algy’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Oh, and where is the man of the hour?”

“He’s still sleeping,” Lainey said. She threw a glance at the clock on the mantle as she sipped her tea. “He must have been really tired.”

“I bet he was,” Algy muttered. Biggles grabbed the newspaper and held it over his face so Lainey couldn’t see him, shaking with repressed laughter.

“It’s time for him to wake up,” Biggles said, once he had regained his self-control. “He’s being a bad host.”

“I’ll get him,” said Lainey. She got up and walked three or four steps away from them before she tugged the shirt down over her backside. Algy and Biggles exchanged a long look.

**

Ginger woke up to Lainey’s hair brushing his face. “Mmm,” he murmured happily.

“Your flatmates said it’s time for you to wake up,” she said, climbing back into the bed with him. “But I think we should go back to sleep for a little bit.”

Ginger agreed until what she’d said sunk into his fuzzy brain. He pulled away from her. “Wait. Did you say that my _flatmates_ told you it was time for me to wake up?”

“Yep. I met them at breakfast. They seem nice.”

Ginger sat bolt upright. “Shit.”

He dressed more quickly than he’d ever dressed in his life. ”Wait here.” He stumbled into the lounge with far more haste than dignity. 

“I can explain,” he began desperately.

Biggles repressed a smile and tried to look very stern. “Oh good. I was hoping you might enlighten us.”

“She needed a place to stay.”

“She found one,” Algy grinned.

“She had a quarrel with her uncle – he wouldn’t let her come home.”

“Well, she needs to mend those fences or find somewhere else to stay,” Biggles told Ginger shortly. “She can’t stay here indefinitely.”

“I know,” Ginger said. “I’ll… I’ll take her round to her uncle’s today and see if she can sort things out with him.”

Biggles nodded curtly and then stopped short as a thought occurred to him. “I trust you were… careful.”

Ginger turned as red as his hair. “Yes. Um. Algy gave me some awhile back. He said if I couldn’t be good, at least I could be careful.”

Biggles rolled his eyes heavenward. “Of course he did. Well, thank goodness for that.” 

Ginger sat, his face flushed, silent and mortified. Biggles let him suffer for a few moments, but then took pity on him. “Look, Ginger,” he said gently. “I’m not entirely opposed to the idea of … guests. Lord knows Algy brings friends home from time to time, although he usually makes sure they’re gone by breakfast.”

“Who, me?” Algy broke in innocently.

“But,” Biggles continued, struggling to keep a straight face, “you should talk to them first and let them know they can’t just … wander into the lounge … without any… uh… knickers.”

Ginger’s eyes saucered. “She didn’t,” he whispered in horror.

“Oh yes, she did,” Algy grinned. “It was quite a show. I disagree with Biggles on this point by the way. By all means, continue.”

Biggles kicked him under the table.

“After all,” Biggles continued once a brief scuffle had abated. “What if Raymond had come by to give us a new job or something?”

Ginger buried his face in his hands. 

“Why don’t you ask Miss… wait… what’s her surname, by the way?”

Ginger looked up from his hands, horrified. He mumbled something unintelligible, and re-buried them.

“What was that?” Biggles asked, repressing laughter with great difficulty.

“I… I don’t know,” Ginger admitted in a voice just above a whisper. 

“My, aren’t we modern this morning,” Biggles commented dryly. “Even Algy usually bothers to learn their surnames.”

“Only to make sure they’re not the younger sisters of my friends,” Algy pointed out brightly, swiping the last piece of toast off the rack. “Mrs. Symes needs to make us some more toast, she wasn’t to know she’d have a fourth place at the table this morning.”

Biggles looked up. “Mrs. Symes. That gives me an idea. Ginger, please ask Miss… ah... your guest to freshen up and get dressed. I’ll be back.”

By the time Ginger and Lainey, fully clothed now, returned to the sitting room, Mrs. Symes was waiting. She was wearing her best dress and her church hat, with her overcoat over one arm and a large handbag in the other.

“Oh, Mrs. Symes, you look just the part of the dignified, respectable, matronly Englishwoman,” Algy grinned.

“I should hope so,” she said, gleefully. “Oh, this will be fun. I love masquerading as respectable.”

“Aren’t you always?” Ginger asked, curiously. To his dismay, she winked at him and tapped the side of her nose with a finger. 

“What… what are you going to do?” Lainey asked, suddenly wary.

“I’m going to take you round to your uncle’s,” Mrs. Symes replied. “And I shall tell him no lies, but neither shall I tell him the complete truth – if there’s one thing I’ve learned working for you, Major, it’s how to bend the truth to one’s needs. (Here, Biggles actually blushed.) I’ll tell your uncle that I keep house for three gentlemen, who happen to be away at the moment – which will be true by the time we arrive, as they are just departing – and I live in the flat just above your stationery shop. You arrived at my home in the middle of the night, with nowhere else to go.”

“All true,” Algy chortled.

“And I shall give him a piece of my mind, about turning you out on the streets with no one else to turn to.”

“Oh, Mrs. Symes, you are a treasure,” Biggles grinned.

“Thanks, Mrs. Symes, I owe you one,” Ginger said with genuine relief. 

She looked at him slyly. “You also owe me the cab fare.”

“What? Oh… yes, of course,” Ginger hurriedly dug out his wallet. He turned to Algy. “Uh… I need a little help.”

Algy laughed heartily at him for a good minute until he finally relented and pulled out his own wallet. “How did you get yourself into this?”

“That would be me,” Lainey said cheerfully. “I came upstairs and…”

“Yes, we’re quite aware of what happened next,” Biggles broke in. “You don’t need to give us the details. I appreciate that you are an honest and straightforward young woman, but there are some things one should keep to oneself.”

The End.


End file.
